Andrew John Dawes OAM is an Australian seven time Paralympic wheelchair coach. He has coached Australian athletes to 19 gold medals at Paralympic Games. Including Louise Sauvage, Kurt Fearnley and Greg Smith. He currently is the

New South Wales Institute of Sport The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) is a high performance sports training institute located in New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales government agency provides world leading coaching, performance support and daily training ...

(NSWIS) Wheelchair Track and Road head coach.

Personal

Dawes was born on 30 September 1969 in

Orange, New South Wales Orange is a city in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney on a great circle at an altitude of . Orange had an estimated urban population of 40,493 Estimated resident population, 3 ...

. He is married to Paralympic athlete

Christie Dawes Christie Dawes (née Skelton, born 3 May 1980) is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021. Personal When she was young, Dawes was very interested in athle ...

who he also coaches. They have a son who was born in 2011.

Coaching career

Dawes began his career as a physical education teacher. He went on to become a coach for the Australian wheelchair track and road team at the

1996 Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internationa ...

. In the 1998 IPC World Track and Field Championships, Dawes was named as the national team coach. He has gone on to coach several successful athletes including

Louise Sauvage Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM (born 18 September 1973) is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach. Sauvage is often regarded as the most renowned disabled sportswoman in Australia. She won nine gold and four silver medals at fo ...

, Greg Smith and

Fabian Blattman Fabian John Blattman, OAM (born 28 December 1958) is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He became disabled after a motorbike accident. He started playing disabled bowls, before switching to athletics. As a Paralympic athletics competitor, he h ...

. He has attended four successive Summer Paralympics from 2000-2012 as an assistant coach and as a coach. In the

2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympic ...

Dawes coached Kurt Fearnley to success where he won gold. Additionally, his wife Christie won silver in the 4 × 100 m relay team at the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

In 2012 three of Dawes' athletes,

Kurt Fearnley Kurt Harry Fearnley, (born 23 March 1981) is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and 'crawled' the Kokoda Track. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development ...

and

Rosemary Little Rosemary Little (born 27 August 1982) is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She won a bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and has also competed in handcycling. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, her third ...

, participated in the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

. Where Christie won bronze, Fearnley won silver and bronze and Little won bronze. Currently, Dawes is the head coach of the NSWIS Wheelchair Track & Road Program.

Recognition

In 2014 Dawes was awarded a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for service to athletics as a wheelchair track and road coach.

References

External links

Andrew Dawes - Paralympic Legend
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, Andrew Australian athletics coaches Paralympic coaches of Australia Coaches at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Coaches at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Coaches at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Coaches at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Coaches at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Paralympic athletics (track and field) coaches Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 1969 births Living people People from Orange, New South Wales